Okay. So I enrolled in this course from Coursera (a website offering free online courses from universities around the world, sans Harvard and MIT because they have EdX, which is exclusive and serves the same function). The course is from Duke University with lecturer Dan Ariely. I thought that he suffered a stroke at first, but it turns out that he suffered burns on 70% of his body (if I remember correctly).
Anyway, I've been tardy, signed up for it on 1st April when it started a week ago. But ive already had some insights from the curse. Not exactly revelations though because I knew about it long ago, but I did underestimate the importance of this thing we call laziness. Or doing things by default. Basically, irrationality. And it does have links as to why The Talk Project has not really launched off yet. On yet another tangent, I've not been speaking much to people. It seems that the adrenaline that courses through the first time doesn't apply to the next few. So, very hard to all. BUT I'm going to keep trying and I hope that people do!
So, about this thing called irrationality. Dan mentions an example about doctors who have to choose between a default of forwarding a patient for hip replacement surgery and calling up the patient to ask him to try another course of medicine (ibuprofen) that the doctor forgot about in a scenario (version1). Mot doctors in this case act like good doctors and choose to call. HOWEVER, in Version 2, two courses of medicine are forgotten. Due to the simple hassle of two drugs, most doctors in this case choose to stick to the default mode and send the patient for hip replacement surgery. This incidentally also links to a TEDtalk on why we should use our brains and question what professionals (self-claimed or otherwise) say. Because they're not always right. TEDtalks are really fun stuff to watch and bring many ideas to you sitting and being a couch potato. Watch videos right here: http://www.ted.com/
Don't be lazy and choose the default of not even clicking!!!
So anyway, I can flesh this idea out a little more. Try testing the group of doctors when they're fresh in the morning and when they're tired at night. I'm pretty sure the default is chosen when we're tired. Oh by the way this concept I am talking about is called choice architecture. Sorry for not mentioning it earlier. The factors that affect our decisions are the environment, defaults, and the complexity of the situation - meaning that if one or more factors are in place, we tend to shut off and (worded in Singlish, something unique to Singapore) just "heck it lah". I'm pretty sure everyone has had this kind of experience at least once in their lives unless theyve been enlightened Buddhas since birth. That one-cent difference in the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet when it's five minutes till knocking off? Conventional economics dictates that the opportunity cost of switching on the computer, changing a value and shutting it off is far greater than leaving the minor mistake alone and spending that five minutes staring into blank space (duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Cue dumb caveman noise.)
In sum, we tend to care much less about making choices and leaving it to the default when we're tired.
This kind of linked back to why Steve Jobs and Apple have been so successful as well. I'm assuming he knew about this concept and set about making minimalist designs centering around this idea, because his products follow this rule. For those who have been living under exceptionally huge rocks, when you compare an iPhone to any other on the market for instance, you get much lesser colours - black and white/silver. This even follows from DSLRs, which have taught people that good things come in few colours. So an iPhone must be spectacular compared to coloured bethren who have to appear sexier to appeal. Iphones are also notorious for making the choice for the laypeople (I'm assuming that tech geeks have the ability to hack and change the operating system as they deem fit). Ringtone? Alarm? Sorry, but you only get a finite number of tones to choose from. The words are either black on white, or in the negative. It turns out that letting people be their true nature (lazy) is great money.
And also that's why when I sketch stuff on my little book I try to limit the number of options available. Too many, and people won't buy it. Incidentally, the same problem arises when I go to hawker centres, those uniquely Singaporean landmarks - too many foods. And shopping malls (cant see why people spend their lives shopping. Girls.... An entire mystery onto themselves....) too.
I'm currently at the part where Dan talks about how retirement plans are made such that most people don't have one. Okay, perhaps they're naturally that way. But you have to opt-in and fill in troublesome forms; you have to choose from many different plans; and it's am important decision that affects your life. No surprise, then, that people just don't care enough in the present to get one. This is how we procrastinate.
So anyway. It does appear, as NNN criticised, that my idea is too sketchy. Who in their right mind would be rational enough to print out stuff, cut them and place themselves in uncomfortable situations when they could be gaining levels, chatting with friends virtually, checking social media? So the task for me now is how I'm supposed to make things easier for people to take up my idea. Got none, though... And of course, most people would simply like the post and (at best) share The Talk Project on their own Facebook walls. But making it easier for this project to go viral ups the chance of news reaching people who are dedicated enough to actually carry out substantial action.
So as a parting shot, I think that regardless of job, those who know the value of choice architecture and actively choose to go against the tide should be given chances of promotion. Because they're at least fighting to constantly be better as opposed to those who have nothing but paper qualifications. Not that those are bad to have. (:
